It was revealed this week that a Russian hacker ring has amassed 1.2 billion username and password combinations and more than 500 million e-mail addresses. Editorial cartoonist Mike Keefe suggests that might be good news for some Internet users, while David Fitzsimmons thinks the news reveals something about Russia president Vladimir Putin.

An overwhelming majority of residents of the Crimean peninsula voted Sunday to secede from the Ukraine and join Russia. Editorial cartoonist Steve Sack suggests Crimeans might have felt under pressure from Russian president Vladimir Putin, while David Fitzsimmons thinks North Korea would give a thumbs-up to the legitimacy of the election.

Opinions are divided on whether President Obama’s response to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula has been appropriate, with some in Congress criticizing the president for not demonstrating enough strength. Editorial cartoonist Gary McCoy suggests Obama is letting Russia’s Vladimir Putin flex his muscles, while Jim Morin thinks Obama is doing exactly what the GOP believes should be done.

For more cartoons on Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, check out the slideshow below.

Andreevna Mariya Smorodskaya, a make-up artist for the opening ceremonies, takes a photo of the Olympic rings against the Bolshoy Ice Dome during a roof light display of moving flames, at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Jan. 31 (David Goldman, Associated Press)

By Edward GoldsteinSpecial To The Washington Post

For 17 days, starting Friday, the world’s eyes will be on the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Russia, host of the 22nd Winter Olympics. U.S. interest in the Winter Games has blossomed, largely because of the spectacular scenery and the American success in many of the sports added to the winter program. Before the Games begin, let’s examine myths worth piercing with a biathlete’s rifle.

1. World politics has intruded on the Summer Olympics but not on the tranquil Winter Games.
Terrorist attacks haven’t struck the Winter Olympics, unlike the Summer Games in Munich in 1972 and in Atlanta in 1996. Nor have there been major boycotts such as those of the Summer Olympics due to disputes over South African apartheid (Montreal 1976) and the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary (Melbourne 1956) and Afghanistan (Moscow 1980). But the Winter Games have seen their share of political strife.

Japan’s invasion of China caused the withdrawal of Sapporo as the host city for 1940, and the site of the 1936 Winter Games, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was dropped as a replacement after Germany invaded Poland. The Summer and Winter Games that year were canceled. Four years later, the ongoing war led to the cancellation of the Winter Games planned for Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The 1944 Summer Olympics were also scrapped.Read more…

Responding to President Obama’s claim that the United States’ ideals and willingness to act are what make America exceptional, Russian President Vladimir Putin, writing in a New York Times op-ed column, said that “it is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” Here’s what editorial cartoonists Nate Beeler and Rick McKee had to say about it.

Among the reasons President Obama canceled a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin next month is Putin’s anti-gay stance. A law signed by Putin in June bans “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,” drawing concern from gay-rights activists and, more recently, support from conservative commentator Pat Robertson. Here’s what editorial cartoonists Mike Luckovich and Steve Sack have to say about the issue.

Syrian army’s soldiers walk in a street left in ruins on June 5, 2013 in the city of Qusayr in Syria’s central Homs province, after the Syrian government forces seized total control of the city and the surrounding region. The Syrian army ousted rebels from the strategic town of Qusayr after a blistering 17-day assault led by Hezbollah fighters, scoring a major battlefield success in a war that has killed at least 94,000 people. (Stringer, AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the U.S. is sending Patriot missiles and fighter jets to neighboring Jordan for military exercises, a move that provoked Russia, Syria’s primary backer, to accuse the West of heightening tensions.

French officials said their tests proved conclusively that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, and in at least one instance it was indisputable that the Syrian government used sarin, a deadly nerve agent.

Energy policies in the U.S. are often contradictory and wasteful – and many drive up costs to consumers for no good reason – but few rival the stunningly destructive course taken by Germany and Switzerland in recent days.

First Switzerland abandoned plans to build three nuclear reactions while announcing it would not replace existing reactors over the next two decades as they were taken off line.

Now Germany has announced it will close most of its reactors by 2021 in response to the Fukushima disaster, and all of them by the end of 2022. “This path sets out a great challenge for Germany,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said in almost comical understatement. “We can be the first industrial country to make the transition into an age of highly efficient and renewable energy.”

Highly efficient, huh? The reason other nations have not made the transition to renewable energy is precisely because it not “efficient” to do so. It is in fact more costly.

Pat Schroeder tries to set the record for the greatest number of non-sequiturs ever stuffed into a single column. Somehow, according to Schroeder, President Bush should have known while campaigning in 2000 that the U.S. would be attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Read more…

I am appalled when reading about Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice lecturing Russian leaders about too much centralized authority, political pressure on the judiciary, a compliant parliament, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law, media restrictions and self-censorship. Read more…

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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